Neville Longbottom and the Sorcerer's Stone
by ShinyTogeticFTW
Summary: "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..." Sure, Harry Potter fits the description in the prophecy, but there was another boy that it could have been referring to as well; what if Voldemort had picked that one instead? In this story, Neville Longbottom is the Chosen One and Harry Potter was raised by his own parents! What else is different and what's the same?


Neville Longbottom and the Sorcerer's Stone  
Chapter 1 - The Boy Who Lived

Neville Longbottom was not an ordinary boy. In fact, he was about as strange a boy as you would ever meet. He was a wizard, and he lived with his grandmother, who was a witch. There were, however, a couple of things about him that set him apart from the rest of his family – and, in fact, wizardkind in general... Unlike most young witches and wizards, Neville had scarcely shown any signs of having magic power until he was eight years old, when his great-uncle Algie accidentally dropped him out of an upstairs window in an attempt to force some magic from him; Neville had bounced off the pavement completely unharmed, further proving without a doubt to his family that he was not a Squib.

Even more uniquely, however, was that he had a jagged scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. He had received this scar when he was little more than a year old, on the night that the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named finally fell. The curious situation surrounding this occurrence is that after You-Know-Who used the worst of the Unforgivable Curses – that which causes instant death to those who are hit by it – on Neville's parents, he turned his wand on young Neville and repeated the spell. Somehow (though no one quite knows exactly) the curse rebounded and destroyed the Dark Lord while Neville remained unharmed but for his lightning scar. It was for this reason that he was famous, known by every non-Muggle in the world as "The Boy Who Lived."

And so it was that on September 1, 1991, when Neville arrived at Platform 9¾ to board the express train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, many a curious eye was drawn in his direction. He nervously flattened down his bangs in an attempt to hide his scar, though he desisted when his grandmother squeezed his shoulder in a talon-like grip. He looked up at her with trepidation, flinching when she drew out a wand and pointed it at him.

His reaction did not go unnoticed by her, but she kept her voice calm as she told him, "Here, Neville, take this." The boy accepted it sheepishly, running his fingers over it gently before tucking it away inside his shabby but well-kept robes. "Now, you be careful with that; you know it was your father's wand," she added, suddenly stern.

Neville nodded and muttered, "I'll take good care of it." There was a moment of hesitation before he added, "Um... Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh, _Neville_," the old woman sighed.

"Excuse me!" a nearby boy shouted as he rushed over, his brand-new robes rippling behind him like a vast shiny ribbon. He stopped to catch his breath and brush his untidy black hair out of his face, revealing a pair of bright green eyes behind a pristine pair of glasses, before holding something out to them. "Is this yours?"

"Trevor!" Neville cried, leaping forward to catch the wayward toad as he hopped out of the other boy's hand. "Where'd you find him?"

"You dropped him just as you were coming through the barrier," he said with a shrug. "It's just lucky I saw him before my cat did, or he would've been a goner."

"How kind of you to return him," Neville's grandmother replied before turning to Neville. "Well? What do you say?"

"Thank you," Neville mumbled, looking down and shuffling his feet.

"Aw, don't mention it," the boy said dismissively. "I'm Harry, by the way; Harry Potter."

"I'm... Neville Longbottom," Neville muttered, almost inaudibly.

Harry's eyes widened. "No way! _The_ Neville Longbottom? Wow! It's such an honor to meet you!" he exclaimed, reaching forward to shake Neville's toad-free hand. "So, you're going to Hogwarts too? Awesome! I'll see you there okay?" Harry then turned to run back to where he was standing before he had approached them, waving briefly at Neville over his shoulder before quickly engaging in an excited conversation with a woman with long red hair holding a cat and a tall man with glasses whose hair was just as unruly as the boy's.

Neville watched their interaction, eventually hearing the woman say, "Mind you take care of her, alright?" as she passed the cat to Harry.

"I will, Mom. Love you." Her son gave her an awkward one-armed hug while struggling to keep hold of the restless feline he now held tight against his chest. "Bye, Dad," he added with a nod to the man to whom he bore such a striking resemblance, reaching forward to offer him a handshake; the man grasped his son's hand and gave him a warm smile, ruffling the boy's hair as he bid him goodbye as well.

Neville's grandmother cleared her throat loudly, making Neville jump. "Have a good term, Neville," she said, with some semblance of affection in her voice, though it was admittedly almost indiscernible under her imposing tone.

"Bye, Gran... Love you," he whispered shyly to his grandmother, though he couldn't manage to give her more than a nervous wave before turning around to board the Hogwarts Express behind Harry. Neville lurched forward, tripping over his feet as he hastened away from his grandmother. He tried and failed to compose himself, tripping once again as he began to climb the steps onto the scarlet steam engine and stumbling into the boy in front of him. Now flushed a deeper red than the very train he was taking, he offered a hurried, "Sorry," as he hid his face and raced down the corridor, not stopping until he had reached the very last compartment and dove inside.

* * *

**A/N: Upload date: July 30th - Neville's birthday. I said I'd do it, and now I have! Though, granted, I have posted nothing else for the past two months despite having promised several new stories/chapters in that time... Busy times, DOTFOTE'ing, the usual excuse; sorry. But, um, as of 7/30/2013 I have little done on this story other than the chapter you see here, and even that is noncontiguous, so... Basically, what I'm trying to say is I don't know when I'll be able to post more - it might be soon, or it might be a while; it depends on how the inspiration strikes me. Reviews are welcome, especially those that comment on or question the aspects of canon that I do (or do not) mention here! ;)**


End file.
